Sossamon v. Texas
E494930
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act case
United States Supreme Court case
sovereign immunity case
Sossamon v. Texas is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held states do not consent to suits for money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by accepting federal funds, reinforcing principles of state sovereign immunity.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sossamon v. Texas canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5099980 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sossamon v. Texas Context triple: [United States sovereign immunity law, keyCase, Sossamon v. Texas]
-
A.
Branch v. Texas
Branch v. Texas is a U.S. Supreme Court case addressing the constitutionality and application of the death penalty in the wake of the landmark Furman v. Georgia decision.
-
B.
Jurek v. Texas
Jurek v. Texas is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s capital sentencing scheme and helped define the modern framework for death penalty procedures under the Eighth Amendment.
-
C.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
-
D.
Texas v. White
Texas v. White was an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the Union to be indestructible and that states could not unilaterally secede from it.
-
E.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sossamon v. Texas Target entity description: Sossamon v. Texas is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held states do not consent to suits for money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by accepting federal funds, reinforcing principles of state sovereign immunity.
-
A.
Branch v. Texas
Branch v. Texas is a U.S. Supreme Court case addressing the constitutionality and application of the death penalty in the wake of the landmark Furman v. Georgia decision.
-
B.
Jurek v. Texas
Jurek v. Texas is a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of Texas’s capital sentencing scheme and helped define the modern framework for death penalty procedures under the Eighth Amendment.
-
C.
Van Orden v. Perry
Van Orden v. Perry is a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument on Texas State Capitol grounds against an Establishment Clause challenge.
-
D.
Texas v. White
Texas v. White was an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court case that held the Union to be indestructible and that states could not unilaterally secede from it.
-
E.
City of Boerne v. Flores
City of Boerne v. Flores is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case that curtailed Congress’s power under the Fourteenth Amendment and held that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could not be applied to the states.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act case
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case ⓘ sovereign immunity case ⓘ |
| appliesDoctrine |
clear statement rule for waivers of sovereign immunity
ⓘ
sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| concerns |
religious exercise rights of institutionalized persons
ⓘ
remedies available against states under Spending Clause legislation ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| decisionType | 6-2 decision ⓘ |
| hasArgumentDate | 2010-11-02 ⓘ |
| hasCitation |
131 S. Ct. 1651
ⓘ
179 L. Ed. 2d 700 ⓘ 563 U.S. 277 ⓘ |
| hasCourt | Supreme Court of the United States NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasDecisionDate | 2011-04-20 ⓘ |
| hasDissentingOpinionBy |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Stephen G. Breyer NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasDocketNumber | 08-1438 ⓘ |
| hasLegalIssue |
Congress’s power under the Spending Clause
ⓘ
availability of money damages under RLUIPA ⓘ state sovereign immunity ⓘ |
| hasMajorityJustices |
Anthony M. Kennedy
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Antonin Scalia NERFINISHED ⓘ Elena Kagan NERFINISHED ⓘ John G. Roberts Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ Samuel A. Alito Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ Sonia Sotomayor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasPetitioner | Harvey Leroy Sossamon III NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasRespondent |
State of Texas
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Texas Department of Criminal Justice NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| holds |
RLUIPA’s authorization of “appropriate relief” is not a clear waiver of state sovereign immunity to monetary damages
ⓘ
Spending Clause legislation must express any waiver of sovereign immunity unambiguously ⓘ States do not consent to suits for money damages under RLUIPA by accepting federal funds ⓘ |
| interpretsStatute |
42 U.S.C. § 2000cc
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1 ⓘ 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-2(a) ⓘ Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| legalArea |
constitutional law
ⓘ
federal statutory interpretation ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | Clarence Thomas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| originatedFrom |
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
United States District Court for the Western District of Texas NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| petitionerStatus | state prisoner ⓘ |
| result | judgment of the Fifth Circuit affirmed ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
civil rights of prisoners
ⓘ
federal courts and jurisdiction ⓘ religious liberty ⓘ |
| yearDecided | 2011 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sossamon v. Texas Description of subject: Sossamon v. Texas is a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held states do not consent to suits for money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by accepting federal funds, reinforcing principles of state sovereign immunity.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.